Loudoun Liberal Tries To Run Off Christian Prison Ministry

Jun. 18, 2009

One of the country's most successful prison ministries, Prison Fellowship Ministries, founded by Watergate figure Chuck Colson, who became a Christian while serving his prison term for his role in that scandal, and now run by former Virginia Attorney General Mark Early, is headquartered in Lansdowne, in Loudoun County. It's success in transforming the lives of convicts is praised by people across the political, religious and professional spectrum.
So why would anyone want to single it out from a Virginia law that exempts non-profit groups from paying property taxes? One would have to ask liberal Loudoun Supervisor Stevens Miller, but suddenly trying to squeeze taxes out of a non-profit pretty much tells an organization it's not wanted.

Supervisor Stevens Miller (D-Dulles) said he was interested in looking at whether the Prison Fellowship Ministries Foundation was still eligible for tax exemption, claiming the Lansdowne-based organization discriminated based on religion by only serving Christians, a point which other members of the committee disputed.

It all started when the Board looked at how it could suck more revenue out of the private sector and into its own coffers. But after examining what these non-profits do for the county — including a medical institute that contributes more than $1 million annually to the county's fire-rescue and public school systems, and a retired Air Force officers community that contributes tens of thousands of dollars to fire-rescue and in student scholarships — it had a tri-partisan epiphany as Board members Republican, Democrat and independent backed off. Except for Mr. Miller (see Crystal Clear Conservative.) Again, from Leesburg Today:

"I am requesting an investigation," Miller said. "Otherwise these exemptions will continue in perpetuity and who knows if the organizations have evolved into something we don't want to [support]. That's a lot of assessed value."

So, there you have it. It's either too Christian or too rich in Mr. Miller's typically liberal view. Either way, it is a prime target for that mindset, regardless of the evidence his colleagues presented. Maybe Mr. Miller has watched too many horror movies of late — it might evolve into something verrry scaaary.

Blog Roll Additions

Apr. 20, 2009

We always look to add blogs worth reading to our blog roll. There are so many of them now, it's hard to keep up. But when new ones come to our attention, or ones that somehow slipped through the cracks are suddenly remembered, we not only add them, but give them a recommendation. So, we're glad to point out some new additions to our blog roll, that we either recently added, or added a while ago but forgot to mention at the time.
One is Political Christian, a fairly new blog, by our friend Larry Miller. He's also got an entire Web site linked to the blog which is a virtual resource center for information and citizen action. Another is VA Social Conservative, from Willie Deutsch, a 20-something, who proves there is a thriving youth social conservative movement in the blogosphere as well as in boots-on-the-ground political activism.

We also added the Web site of the Virginia Catholic Conference, an organization that often is our only ally in the General Assembly as we fight to preserve innocent, unborn life. Its leadership in keeping state funds from finding their way to the hoax that is embryonic stem cell research is unparalleled.

Finally, but certainly not least, we highly recommend Virginia Tomorrow, another fairly new blog, but not by any neophyte or couch potato critic. Virginia Tomorrow is the creation of Dr. Bob Holsworth, one of the most insightful and fair political commentators in Virginia, or the country for that matter. Quoted far and wide on all matters political, he now has this platform to promulgate his points. He is more than willing to speak to any group and supply his observations, including a couple of presentations at Family Foundation functions. I have seen him at several other events, and he remains even keel for every audience, not matter its slant. "Dr. Bob" is one of the good, fair guys. We hope you visit his site, and the others mentioned here, often.